Last week, we were at the Marina Bay Sands attending Asia’s leading entertainment content market in Singapore—the Asia TV Forum and Market (ATF) where ABS CBN was given the Legacy Award at the 2023 Asian Academy Creative Awards.
We listened to the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) as they promoted their new shows, hoping to turn their country into a major player in the content industry worldwide.
Coming to ATF means attracting the attention of global buyers. Among the Korean shows presented were Wedding Fighters, Alumni Lovers, Golden Girls, Still Alive, Doctor Cha, and The Escape of the Seven.
Fewer and fewer people want to get married. In Wedding Fighters, 10 real-life couples join this survival show to brave brutal undertakings for the need to win the prize money of $218,752.00.
Will the soon-to-be-wed couples today find love and be ready for marriage?
Alumni Lovers is from Munhwa Broadcasting Corp (MBC), and has been leading the Korean Wave in Asia with its top-quality content. The biggest question in this reality show: “Could a childhood friend become a lover?”
Eight single men and women who were schoolmates gather in an alumni reunion. It is actually a dating reality show reminiscing about the time when they were in their teens, connecting and finding love in present time.
This heart-pounding reunion gets touching moments when they visit their old school playgrounds, and gets to experience heartfelt highs.
Golden Girls presented by KBS Media is about four legendary singers Insooni, Park Mi-kyung, Shin Hyo-bum, and Lee Eun-mi who have numerous hit songs, are reborn as a Kpop girl group!
Looking back on their 60-year experience as artists, they paint a picture of the past and future of Kpop.
This program was initiated by singer and producer Park Jin-young, also known as JYP, to introduce diversity into the music industry.
Still Alive is a reality game show with a distinctive hybrid genre. 10 contestants stay in a mansion with the goal not to be evicted. They follow the mantra: “Never do what the rules say.” Contestants who fail to follow this rule dies. Through clues, they should figure the rules collected from the evicted contestants. This is all about solving a mystery.
The most popular among them is Doctor Cha, streaming on Netflix. Doctor Cha left the medical field to concentrate on being a mother and housewife. Her health issues made her bolder and a fighter. Despite objections from her family, she begins her journey as a first-year resident at the hospital where her son, husband, and even her husband’s mistress are employed.
Starring Uhm Jung-hwa in the title role, the drama-comedy follows her life in the hospital as a working mother and how she discovers her husband philandering ways.
The Escape of the Seven, created by Kim Sun-ok follows the quest for justice for the death of Kang Dami. Seven people are involved in a girl's disappearance case and they face a tough battle.
Indeed, reality shows are back and the freshest content always favors the audience.